Observations on economics, the academy, the wider world, and things that run on rails.

16.2.13

UNLEASH THE RENT SEEKERS.

The Highway Trust Fund is the fiction by which the truckers seek to live at the expense of everybody else, and particularly the railroads. The trucking lobby is pushing Congress to allow heavier trucks on the public roads. The railroaders push back.

The [Assoociation of American Railroads] has commissioned a freight diversion study that should be completed by March 14. Initial reports indicate the [association] study is going to reaffirm substantial freight diversion from rail to truck and a large increase in the number of trucks on our nation’s highways. Products most vulnerable to diversion include steel, minerals, agricultural products, food products, autos, and chemicals and plastics.

Fine, let's make sure the heavier trucks bear the full cost of the road-strengthening programs, as well as the increased congestion costs those elephants will impose on everyone behind them. We don't want to become China, with days-long traffic jams.